Family Expeditions - I am a Proud Father

Submitted by Jean-Michel Cousteau on Tue, 06/03/2014 - 7:22am

June 3, 2014

As a proud father, I look forward to watching the accomplishments of my children and the month of June proves to be a milestone! Both of my children are leading their own expeditions, carrying on the legacy started by their grandfather. Celine will be land based in the Amazon and Fabien will be living under the sea for a month. Please allow me this opportunity to brag a bit and share why I am so proud of their conservation efforts.

My daughter Céline is currently with her team filming her documentary, Tribes on the Edge, in the Vale do Javari region in the Brazilian Amazon. This is the same region where we visited in 2007 during the filming of my PBS documentary Return to the Amazon. The plight of the people there touched her so deeply that she has dedicated the last several years of her life to raising the awareness and the funds needed to revisit the region and tell a deeper story of the people who live there.

Céline has enjoyed a long love of the Amazon region! In fact, as a 9 year-old she was a part of my father’s 1982-1983 expedition which explored the fabled rainforest over a 2 year period. She spent her school breaks with my father and I aboard Calypso. I have watched her thrive over the past decades and I couldn’t be prouder that she is doing her own “return to the Amazon”.

I invite you to learn more about her extraordinary expedition on her websites CauseCentric.org and TribesOnTheEdge.com and also by watching the teaser for the film. Please follow her and her team on Facebook and Twitter as well. They will be posting updates from the field when they have satellite uplink. Additionally, her nonprofit organization CauseCentric Productions is giving away a copy of my award winning eBook, Return to the Amazon, in order to bring awareness to her expedition. You can enter here.

On Sunday, June 1, my son Fabien “Splashed Down” and entered the Aquarius habitat, the world’s only underwater research lab. There he will be spending a total of 31 days living under water with his team of scientists. This will be the first time a mission of this length has taken place in the history of Aquarius, which is deployed 63 feet beneath the sea off the coast of Key Largo, Fla., operated by Florida International University (FIU).

Fabien’s ground breaking expedition honors the 50th anniversary of the Conshelf Two mission led by my father, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who is credited with creating the first ocean floor habitats for humans and taking a team on a 30-day mission. Mission 31 will expand the Cousteau legacy by one full day, 30 more feet depth and will broadcast every second of the adventure exposing the world to the adventure, challenge and mystery of what lies beneath.

During the 31-day mission, Fabien and his team will spend about six to nine hours a day diving for science experimentation while his Bonnet Rouge (meaning ‘Red Cap’ in French and named in honor of his grandfather) production team will be shooting short and long format documentaries for Mission 31. Please watch their YouTube channel and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

I will be joining Fabien in Aquarius on June 7th. I look forward to spending time with my son under the sea! You can tune in to the live 24 hour stream on his website Mission-31.com/watch-live.

I am a proud father everyday, but this month is extraordinary. Please join me in supporting Fabien and Céline as they embark on once in a lifetime journeys! Céline’s CauseCentric.org and Fabien’s Mission-31.com.